Answer

Answer:

Explanation

Explanation:

Answer:

AMU is the mass of 1 proton or neutron (exponentially tiny). Moles quantify the amount of atoms needed to make this tiny unit visible through grams. Moles are a visible equivalent to the AMU, and have mass we can easily measure.

Explanation:

The previous answer personally doesn't help me visualize the relationships described. In the following explanation I will relate AMU, Mole, and g as units of measurement in and of themselves, aside from their immediate uses.

First, what are units of measurement? They are random amounts of any conceivable value that are no longer random after using them. Before inches existed, people would relate distance to their bodies. If someone made a map of their village, the point they chose as center had no meaning until buildings around it were drawn, and that drawing may have been useless for a different part of town. When counting money, you can count the amount of bills you have, which have controlled units of value (fives, tens, twenties). But the amount of bills you have isn't your money until you relate it to dollar equivalent.

In this same way, it's difficult to understand the physicality of atoms because we don't see them. We must use a reference point. This reference point is the proton, which is essential to the identity of an element; it is a basic building block. One proton is 1 AMU, atomic mass unit. The actual value of this in grams is exponentially tiny (1.66 x 10⁻²⁴). No scale in the 1800s could detect a single atom, and we still can't see it.

This is where the Mole comes in. The mole bridges this gap, between the basic building blocks we can't see, and the ways we can truly measure them (between particles and grams). Moles are defined as the amount of atoms in 12 grams of a certain element: Carbon-12. Twelve is also the AMU of this element. What this means, is that moles reverse the atomic scale of AMU. The 12 we count in subatomic particles become the same number in grams, which is a different scale. This is why the atomic mass of an element gives both its AMU (its original value) and weight in grams (of a mole).